Contemporary poets of the Middle East

[Jozanny]

I know very little, culturally or otherwise, about poets and poetic voices in the Middle East today, but from what is reaching me in translation, there is a resonance ( http://www.slate.com/id/2200488/) which is seemingly in scant supply in the American small presses. Yusef's dialectic with Biblical tradition and contemporary allusion is nothing new, but here is an authentic voice of conscience and authority which transcends impressionistric tricks concurrent in the American scene.

[JBI]

Just so you know, Yusef Komunyakaa is American, and I believe writes in English, for an English (American) audience. If you want an "authentic voice" try Adunis, as he is one of the most highly acclaimed poets of today.

[Jozanny]

Well then, I made assumptions from the name, context of the poem I shouldn't have, my error--but this, this is the authenticity of which I speak which Yeats and Roethke sacrifice to formalism--which tires me. I have nothing against formalism, but I do not like it when it pushes the reader out from absorbing the verse, as opposed to rising above its rhyme and beat to draw the reader in.

To redeem myself, if only slightly, PBS does have video of contemporary Israeli and Palestinian poets doing brief readings on the Newshour, and I shall go and fetch it in a bit. My palsy needs some stretching.

[stlukesguild]

Of course we cannot assume that all the Middle-Eastern poets are Islamic. Yehuda Amichai, from Israel, is certainly worth reading.

[Jozanny]

As promised, I managed to dig up Taha Muhammad Ali (http://israel.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=3181), and for right now, will let the site speak for itself.